Bulgaria retains the chance to avoid downward spiral in the current Covid-19 crisis thanks to the help of the anti-crisis measures and the emergency capital injections in its health and financial system.  This country can revive its economy in the next two years with the help of budgetary and EU funding. Bulgaria’s government is to allot an extra EUR 40 million until the end of 2020 to reorganize its healthcare system amid the Covid-19 crisis. Another EUR 20 million will be allocated to businesses such as restaurants, educational and training centers, gyms and sports facilities, which are affected by the restrictive measures adopted by the government to contain the spread of Covid-19 infection. The Bulgarian Association of Restaurants welcomes the latest measure, although it differs from our requests to some extent, the association’s chairman Richard Alibegov commented for BNR:

“We asked the authorities to pay 80% of the gross salary of our employees written in the employment contracts. The state has announced that it was able pay each worker 80% of the minimum monthly salary only. This is a huge difference, but it is at least something, because we are talking about closed businesses only. We hope that these businesses will be closed for one month only and that they will be able to reopen in December and have enough revenue to continue functioning.”

The anti-crisis measures planned by the end of the year in support of the affected businesses and the healthcare system can be paid by the state budget, because it still has a surplus of over EUR 300 million. We should not be worried about next year either, if the economy continues to function and the authorities support incomes and employment with the help of the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan which would allow Bulgaria access to the EU Recovery Fund, senior economist Georgi Angelov said:

“These are the main initiatives that will give Bulgaria the opportunity to receive nearly EUR 25 billion in the next 7 years. We are to receive access to these funding, as soon as we prepare the necessary documents, procedures and projects and make the necessary reforms. Some of this funding may be even available by the end of 2020 and in 2021.”

There is no reason to worry about the 4% budget deficit projected for 2021, if the money is used for economic incentives, Georgi Angelov says. Moreover, this will preserve the chances of our country for a quick economic recovery, especially if the money is used to increase incomes and stimulate employment and consumption.

“It is better to take preventive measures and avoid increase of unemployment. This is the cheapest measure- economist Georgi Angelov contends. - If we allow unemployment to skyrocket, we are to enter a downward spiral and it will take us many years to recover. Gradually, we need to start thinking about measures to stimulate companies that hire people, expand their production capacity and grow despite the crisis.”

As for the forecasts for recovery from the crisis, most of them are optimistic about Bulgaria:

“According to almost all forecasts, Bulgaria will recover from the crisis in 2022”, Georgi Angelov said further.

Written by: Natalia Ganchovska

Editor: Yoan Kolev

English version: Kostadin Atanasov